NEWS ANALYSIS: The impact of Björn Wahlroos

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By Tuomo Pietiläinen
     
      A certain large company in the financial services branch proudly showed off the efficiency programme of Nordea Bank, describing it as the New Normal.
      However, it was not the Nordea management that rejoiced over the normalisation of Nordea, but rather Kari Stadigh, President and CEO of insurers Sampo Group.
      The CEO of Nordea’s largest owner (with a 21.3% holding in the bank) said when the company’s results were being made public, that Sampo expects significant additional returns from the Nordea efficiency programme.
      In practice, it means more dividends flowing from Nordea to Sampo.
     
Lurking in the background is an operation starting from a few years back, in which the Sampo management has groomed Nordea, the largest bank in the Nordic Countries, as its prize thoroughbred racehorse.
      This was done simply by buying up Nordea shares, thereby giving people from Sampo access to the Nordea Board of Directors.
      First Stadigh’s partner and boss Björn Wahlroos ascended to the Nordea Board in the spring of 2008. He got the post of Chairman of the Board this spring (see linked article).
      And accompanying Wahlroos in the Nordea boardroom is none other than Kari Stadigh.
     
It is easy to see that the efficiency measures announced today and the "normalisation" are the specific wishes of the Wahlroos-Stadigh duo.
      Wahlroos’s ownership policy has always involved keeping the goods constantly ready for sale with the help of various efficiency measures.
      The soft Swedes would probably not have cut staff at such a profitable bank. In particular the Finnish unit of Nordea has been constantly one of the most profitable in the group - sometimes the most profitable.
     
Wahlroos is unlikely to be selling Nordea anywhere in the immediate future, even though the current operation is part of a move to raise Nordea’s market capitalisation.
      A good market value is needed when Wahlroos uses Nordea’s shares in the next big structural rearrangement.
      Right now it would seem that the Nordic structural realignments in the financial sector are not going anywhere.
      For that reason, Wahlroos’s sights are set on Central Europe - places such as France and Germany.
     
Another prerequisite of a good deal is that the goods that are bought should be as inexpensive as possible in terms of price.
      So is it a complete coincidence that Wahlroos said in London in June that financially-strapped eurozone countries should be left without assistance?
      This would send the countries into default and bankruptcy, and cause problems at least for the banks of France and Germany, which have lent large dollops of money to Greece.
      The best of them could then be acquired at a knockdown price, using the shares of Nordea, which have meanwhile maintained their value.
     
     
Helsingin Sanomat / First published in print 30.8.2011
     
     
The announcement on Monday of co-determination talks and possible extensive staff reductions within Nordea certainly did no harm to the bank's share price in Helsinki on Monday. By the close of trading it had risen 3.78%, while the market value weighted OMX Helsinki 25 Index was up by 3%.


Previously in HS International Edition:
  Employees furious over Nordea Bank’s planned mass dismissals (30.8.2011)

See also:
  Nordea rewards bank executives with EUR 169 million bonus (25.3.2011)
  Sampo buying more of Nordea (4.2.2011)

TUOMO PIETILÄINEN / Helsingin Sanomat
tuomo.pietilainen@hs.fi